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CAMBRIDGE, ONT. — New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair wants to convince Canadians the key to a healthier economy, at least when it comes to job creation in the manufacturing sector, lies in more, not less, involvement from the federal government.

“We've bled off a lot of those jobs, but there is hope. There is another vision. There is a new era coming, with a federal government that believes in a positive role in helping create those jobs and that is where the NDP will come in,” Mulcair told reporters while visiting Innovative Steam Technologies, a company that makes steam generators in Cambridge, Ont., Tuesday on the second day of his pre-writ swing through vote-rich Ontario.

The troubled economy is top of mind for both politicians and voters as the country heads toward the Oct. 19 federal election, with yet another interest rate cut by the Bank of Canada last week — from 0.75 per cent to 0.50 per cent — confirming below-zero growth for the first half of the year, even though its governor, Stephen Poloz, avoided calling it a recession.

The New Democrats, who have long faced an uphill battle when it comes to convincing Canadians they are ready to manage the economy, are naturally focusing attention on the manufacturing sector as the leader travels throughout southern Ontario, a region particularly affected by job losses.

CBC News obtained an internal report from Industry Canada last week that said there has been a net loss of 212,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario since 2004, and that some have disappeared forever.

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In Cambridge, Mulcair once again put forward his theory that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government are largely to blame for putting so much emphasis on the oil and gas sector out west.

“When we put all of our eggs in one basket, the result is that when that basket tips, everything else suffers, so we are yet to start getting back those manufacturing jobs,” Mulcair said Tuesday.

“That's why it's important to show support for companies like (Innovative Steam Technologies) but also for the future — to have a vision that includes manufacturing, not to leave everything up to an unguarded marketplace, because when you do that, you let sectors like manufacturing die off, you leave future generations with a less balanced economy than the one that we had before. We are going to continue with a hopeful approach,” Mulcair said.

Early on in his leadership, Mulcair came under fire for declaring that Canada was suffering from an economic condition known as “Dutch disease,” a term coined to describe what happened when the Netherlands discovered natural gas and the resulting increased value of its currency led to the collapse of other industries.

Mulcair has not employed the term for some time, and did not utter it Tuesday when asked directly whether he still agreed with that assessment, but his message remained the same.

“Those are terms that you'll find in economic textbooks, but what we are talking about is the reality of the Canadian economy, which today is less balanced than it used to be and we are going to get back to getting a strong manufacturing sector,” Mulcair said.

The type of federal government involvement Mulcair is calling for is far from socialist.

The NDP plan includes cutting the small business tax rate — one percentage point at a time — from 11 to 9 per cent and extending the accelerated capital cost allowance, which allows businesses to rapidly write off investments in equipment against taxable income.

Both those promises, which the NDP recommitted to in January, were contained in one form or another in the 2015 federal budget put forward by the Conservative government, which has also been paying more attention to the manufacturing sector of late.

The other part of the NDP job-creation plan is an Innovation Tax Credit to provide businesses with an incentive to invest in infrastructure needed for “innovation-boosting research and development.”

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